by Lee Swift
Though he definitely wanted to get to his sister’s flat, he also needed to deal with his hunger and thirst. He didn’t want to show up at her place about to pass out.
Across the street he saw an American staple—McDonalds. He walked in and ordered a chocolate shake and glass of water, believing that might settle his queasiness that hadn’t quite gone away.
He downed the water and tossed the empty cup into the trash. Holding the milkshake, he strode out of the restaurant, assuming the look of a normal pedestrian.
Did Angelique know he was alive? Had she ever come to visit him? Doubtful. He could not imagine her mixed up with people who got their heads cut off. But he hadn’t seen her in years. People changed over time. He certainly had. He would give anything just to go back to the last day he’d been with his sister.
As Austin continued walking, painful memories rushed to the forefront of his mind.
He and Angelique were both heartbroken after burying their parents. Being adopted was never an issue with either of them. Alice and Carl McCord were their parents in every way but biological.
The accident devastated Angelique and him. He’d just finished his basic training, expecting a warm welcome home from his mom, dad and sister. But the house had burned to the ground with their parents inside. When he walked in their neighbor’s door, he found Angelique sobbing. The sheriff delivered the news just an hour before his arrival. She was alone. The next several days were a whirlwind of activity, setting up the service, notifying friends and family—the latter of which were distant and few. His dad had a cousin in Maine. His mother was an only child. There was really no one to cling to but each other.
And I left her all alone.
She’d begged him to stay. “I talked with several neighbors who told me you can get out of the military on a hardship discharge.”
“I’m not getting out, Angelique.”
“Please, Austin. I need you.”
He didn’t budge, though it crushed him to see her suffering. “You have your scholarship to King’s College, Sis. I have my Navy career. We both need to get on with our lives.”
Eighteen years old. I thought I knew it all. But of course, I didn’t.
The pain of losing their parents had ripped him apart. He hadn’t known what to do, how to help her or himself. So, he’d pushed Angelique away with his line of BS about starting their lives. It was the best he could think to do for her.
He’d kept pushing her away, causing them to drift further and further apart. Every time they talked on the phone, the pain of losing their parents returned full-force. She was a constant reminder of the grief he didn’t want to deal with. For several years, she didn’t stop trying to reconnect with him. But who could blame her for finally giving up. He was always so cold with her.
The phone calls were the first to go; then the letters became more and more infrequent, until they stopped, too. The only communications that remained intact were birthday cards to each other. Being born on Halloween, their mom had always called them her special little monsters. The continued exchange of cards on that day was their last vestige of happier times.
That’s in the past. I need to focus on the present situation.
When he got to Bedford Street, he scanned every direction to make sure he hadn’t been followed. He turned right and then right again when he came to King Street a block away. He crossed the road and walked up to her building. Angelique’s home.
Her flat was on the second floor. He went up the stairs. Knocking on 2B, Austin hoped that someone other than his sister would answer and say she was no longer a Londoner.
CHAPTER 14
10:13 AM
David Bathry glanced in the rearview mirror of his Audi and saw the first bits of dark smoke begin to seep out the top windows of the ancient house. Its total destruction would take less than ten minutes. Millions of pounds were going up in smoke. With his mind fixed on the prize ahead, he buried his anger deep down inside for the loss of his precious collections.
Despite his earlier misgivings, he and Albert had followed the plan to the letter. Never deviating from the master plot was how the Bathrys had navigated the murky waters for centuries. Loyalty to the bloodline and always being prepared was his family’s motto.
His father believed that loyalty was not a natural condition, and that it was never earned by showing compassion or respect. Those were signs of weakness. Pay someone a kindness and they might never repay it. But instilling loyalty was another matter.
Perhaps he had been too lenient with the halfblood. Plying the bastard with lavish quarters and giving him the freedom to roam about the city may have been small errors in judgment. He even tried to educate the man, playing Henry Higgins to his twisted version of Eliza Doolittle. Maybe he should have kept the wretch caged in a dungeon somewhere, giving him daily beatings like his father would have done. Then the creature might not have taken liberties with the plan and gone off who-the-hell-knew where.
Bathry rubbed his eyes. Nothing that had happened was his fault. He’d followed the plan to the letter. If any mistakes were made, they weren’t his. They belonged to those who had created the plan in the first place, including his own father.
At least the fire would not come back to haunt him. Long ago, he’d made sure that none of the police cameras were pointed at the building. No one had ever lived in the home. And any Bathry, including him, who visited the place made sure never to be seen. The investigators would most surely declare the blaze arson, and since every government record showed the house to be vacant, that would be the end of it. A fire started by vandals.
He had sent Albert to first check on the Bathry Bloodline Sanctuary. Even if his enemies captured the halfblood, David doubted this location would be compromised. The abomination didn’t know anything. But as the head of his bloodline, Bathry needed to be certain. Once Albert reported back that the place was safe, he would send him to The Sanctuary of the Forgotten. If the abomination was dead, Bathry wanted Albert in place to receive the bastard’s body.
In truth, he believed the plan was still working, though he didn’t know for certain what had happened to the halfblood. Finding that pig or his corpse was his primary concern now. That was why he must get to his office straight away. But first he needed to get home to change out of the smoky clothes and have a quick shower.
Being Directorate of Information for the Metropolitan Police gave him easy access to any and all data, including the feeds from cameras covering six hundred twenty square miles, and over seven million citizens. He knew what cameras he would need to check first. The ones on Murphy Street, where his enemies’ sanctuary was located and where he’d sent the beast for his final mission.
His mobile phone buzzed, and he glanced at the screen on the dash. But it was blank.
Another buzz.
He realized that it wasn’t coming from his personal phone but from the burner phone to which only one man knew the number.
He pulled it out of his pocket, taking a deep breath before answering.
“Jack?”
2003
San Angelo, Texas
CHAPTER 15
Angelique sat on a folding chair in the middle of Lawn Haven Cemetery. There was no other family. She was alone.
The Navy chaplain read some passages from the Bible, but she found it hard to listen.
The headstone that marked her parents’ final resting place was next to the open grave her brother’s coffin would be lowered into at the conclusion of this service.
Just ten years ago she was here for their funeral, and he was sitting beside her. That had been a rare, rainy summer morning, and he had held his umbrella over her because she had forgotten hers.
As they stood together next to the graves, she had decided to make one final plea.
“Austin, you could put in for more time. I need your help. I can’t go through the insurance papers alone. Our home is destroyed. This isn’t fair. They were your parents, too.”
“We’ve been over
this, Sis. I’ve spoken to the women at the church. They’ll help you with anything you need.”
She started tearing up again even though she didn’t think she had any tears left to shed. “I’ll still be the one making the decisions. You’re just running away from them all.”
He turned to face her, a stony look in his eyes. “I’m not running away. This is my dream, Angelique. How would you feel if I told you that you couldn’t go off to college next month?”
“If it came down to me going off to college and abandoning you, I would never go.”
“I’m not abandoning you.”
“Yes, you are. Don’t you realize you’re all I have left?” She started sobbing again, and he sighed.
“We’ll get through this, Sis,” he said. “I’m not going away forever.”
“You might as well be. Go on, go be a hero, get yourself killed in some godforsaken country.”
He turned around and stalked off, tossing the umbrella onto the wet grass as he went. She felt the regret hit her full force as she watched his retreating back.
That was the last time she had seen Austin.
Being only eighteen, she hadn’t understood how her brother could leave her. But now, after discovering her own passion, she understood how he felt. She just wished she had told him.
They stayed in touch for a while. Phone calls. Letters. Cards. Excuses were made by both of them why they couldn’t meet. She immersed herself in her classes to get through the remorse of losing their parents. Austin had also found a way through his sadness.
In her purse was the last birthday card he would ever send her.
“Sorry, Sis. Can’t make Christmas this year. My unit is deploying. Pretty excited about this mission. Can’t tell you where, but I won’t need a coat. Lovya, Austin.”
Before leaving for the airport, she had torn her flat apart searching for his card. She thought it might bring her comfort looking at it, though she wasn’t sure anything would be able to ease her overwhelming heartache. When she finally located it in the bottom of her desk drawer, she had cried until the tears stopped falling.
No rain today. The sun burned bright in a cloudless sky. This was the way Austin would have liked it. He loved warm weather.
The seven SEALs fired their guns.
Austin died a hero, saving a fellow SEAL in a mission the Navy told her was classified.
The bugle player began to play Taps. She watched two of the soldiers fold the flag into a triangle. They handed it to the man Austin took the deadly bullet for, Petty Officer First Class Michael Remington. His arm was in a sling.
He walked over. Her eyes filled with tears.
He handed her the flag. In a low tone that only she could hear, he said, “I’m sorry for your loss. Austin was my friend. I owe him my life. I will miss him, too.”
She took the flag from him. Unending tears rolled down her cheeks.
CHAPTER 16
10:13 AM – Present Day
Angelique smiled at the impatient rapping on the door. “Hold on, honey. You’re the one who forgot your keys, not me.”
She opened the door expecting Michael but instead saw a ghost from her past.
Her twin brother was standing in front of her. That couldn’t be. It was unimaginable. Austin couldn’t be here. He was dead. She’d buried him next to their parents more than a decade ago.
Shock rolled through her, causing her heart to beat rapidly and her legs to weaken. She felt dizzy like she was going to faint. Holding firmly to the door to try to remain on her feet, she found it impossible to speak or even breathe.
“Angelique, it’s me. Austin.”
It’s his voice. “They told me…your mission…failed.” She let go of the door and took several steps backwards. Am I losing my mind? “That you had…died—”
“They told you wrong.” Her deceased brother closed her door and turned the deadbolt. Silently, he walked to the window, placing a bag on the floor.
Her entire body was trembling. “What in the world is going on? I planned your funeral. I was there. I saw them lower your casket into the ground.”
“It couldn’t have been me, Sis. I’m here.” He stared out onto the street below.
Unblinking, she studied every inch of his face. He looked barely older than when they parted more than twenty years ago. There were no wrinkles around his bright blue eyes. He was clean-shaven, but his hair was grown out from the military regulation cut he’d worn in the last picture she had of him—the one of him in full dress uniform in front of Old Glory that they used at his funeral.
“They gave me the flag that draped over your casket.”
Continuing to gaze at the street below, he didn’t seem fazed by what she was telling him.
“Austin, if it is really you, say something, damn it.” With her whole heart she prayed it was him. She’d been without her brother for so long, and they never made things right between them—before he died. “What are you looking at?”
“I might have been followed.” He turned to her.
“Followed? Who would be following you?”
A look of concern appeared on his face. “I thought you might have an idea about that, but I can tell you don’t.”
“I don’t have a clue, Austin, but whatever trouble you’re in, I’ll help you.” Though still shaken, her breathing steadied and the dizziness subsided. “I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that you are here. Alive. It’s just not possible.”
“It’s really me, Sis.” He grabbed her hands and squeezed. “Was it a closed casket at my service?”
“They told me your remains were mangled beyond recognition. I could not bear seeing you like that.” That painful memory melted away the shock inside her body. In its place, anger swept through her. She pulled her hands away. “Where have you been all this time? Why haven’t you contacted me? Why did you let me believe you were dead? What the hell is going on?”
“I wish I knew, Angelique. The last thing I remember was being shot in Iraq.”
Hearing the frustration in his voice evaporated her anger, and she wrapped her arms around him. “Oh my God, Austin.”
“Next, I woke up in an underground facility on the other side of the Thames a little over an hour ago.”
“You think you lost your memory?”
“I believe I might have been in a coma, but I really don’t know.” He sighed. “When I came to I found the photo of us building the sandcastle next to my bed. Remember that day?”
“I do.” Tears of joy fell from her eyes. “You’re alive.”
Austin pulled her in tight and held her while she sobbed.
“We’ve always shared that twin sixth sense,” she said. “I was so upset I didn’t have any sign of your passing. I expected to. Since I didn’t, I should have known that you were still alive. I definitely would have sensed if you were gone.”
He pulled her close, kissing her on the forehead. “Yes, I’m alive.”
She released him and wiped her eyes. “Let me look at you. My God, I still can’t believe you’re here. You’re really here.”
“And I can’t believe you’re still in London and not back home in the States.”
“You seem disappointed, Austin, that I made a life here. This is my home now.” My brother is alive. “Where did you get those clothes? There is a store tag on the arm of the sweater.”
“Long story. Actually, short story, but it will have to wait. I know we have a lot to catch up on, but right now we have to hurry.” He pointed to the front door. “Is this the only entrance to your place?”
“There’s another door, though we don’t use it often.” Her heart thudded in her chest. “Whatever is wrong I can help you.” And so can Michael.
“You didn’t know I was alive, but someone did; someone who was able to get a photo of both of us.”
His words shocked her. Who would do such a thing?
“Until we know who that is and what their intentions are, I need to make sure you are safe. Sh
ow me the other door.”
“You’re scaring me, Austin.”
“Maybe it’s good to be scared, Sis. At least until I figure out what the hell happened to me.”
She led him to the other part of her home.
“This place is bigger than I expected from what you wrote in your letters.”
“We bought the flat next to mine, 2A, about ten years ago and combined the two. We needed more space.”
“We? Do you have a roommate, boyfriend?” Austin stopped, as if suddenly remembering the amount of time he’d been missing. “Are you married?”
She nodded. “Married.”
“I need to borrow a jacket and cap of your husband’s.”
“In that closet there,” she said. “Why?”
“When I go back on the street I need to be inconspicuous.”
“You planning on leaving already? You just got here.”
“Not sure yet.” He put on Michael’s clothing. “Any kids?”
His question reminded her of her this morning’s disappointing pregnancy test. “No. I’m married to someone you know. In fact, you two served together. My husband is Michael Remington.”
Austin froze in place. Clearly, he was astonished by what she’d told him. “How did you two meet?”
“At your funeral. What else would you like to know?” That brought up a thousand other things she wanted to say to him. But where to begin?
“I have a ton of questions I want to ask you, but we will have to talk about this later.”
She nodded, wondering if they would actually have that talk. Before their parents’ deaths they could tell each other anything. After? The whole world came crashing down. They should have clung together through the nightmare, but instead he had pulled away. Now, she really didn’t know how to talk to him. The wall between them seemed insurmountable.
But he’s alive. Oh God, he’s really Austin.
“Now, about your other door?”
She pointed. “There it is.”